Dear Editor,
I grew up on a cattle ranch and farm in the Salinas Valley of California. For my tenth birthday my maternal grandmother who lived over 250 miles north of us presented me with a pony named Primo for the occasion. My maternal grandfather was a jeweler and really not a rancher. Apparently, my grandmother got Primo at a bargain price.
Primo had been used in a pony riding place for kids. My folks bought a saddle that would accommodate him. The other horse saddles on the ranch were for real horses. The problem with Primo was that he really did not care for kids. Whenever I tried to ride him, he would buck me off and bite me when I got out of sight of the adults. No wonder my grandmother got him so cheaply! It is also the reason I did not become much of a cowboy.
About five years later I learned the Morse Code and became a ham radio operator. It was also the time that I flew an airplane the first time, a biplane crop duster. Martin who owned the ranch south of us also had a crop dusting business with three Stearman biplanes. He had been a civilian instructor pilot for aviation cadets at the local airport during World War II. The Stearman was the first aircraft that I soloed in. Instead of majoring in electrical engineering, I decided to look into chemistry which would be good for running a crop dusting business or going to veterinary school. I found that Morse Code was good for identifying some air navigational aids, and a good science background is good for medically and surgically treating people. I advise young people to learn as much about science as possible in this high tech age. I also advise them that political science is not a real science.
Dr. W. David Herbert,
Billings
